Socially|Mundane

Second Life: three-dimensional representation of our world as we are familiar with it as presented on a computer display, the representation being created by the computer. In Second Life, you are represented by an avatar.

Your avatar have no life-sustaining needs such as eating, drinking, sleeping. It also does not get tired of standing, sitting, swimming (and holding it's breath - which it does not breathe,) and neither does it recognize the urge for procreation, pain, death or anything else.

It is literally invincible according to computer code. So why then do people mimic these things? Comfort? Familiarity? Emotional necessity? I find it funny when I stand all the time in SL and someone asks me to sit. I mean, literally invites me to please have a seat. Then offers me a drink. Okay, so it adds to the 'immersion' thing. it's comforting because we subconsciously feel what we see.

However, there are some things that don't release endorphins in our brains and really, really don't make any sense to me as to why they are in SL and why anyone in SL would use them...

Banks: Sorry to burn you but truth hurts. If you have participated in any SL bank, you are simply a rock with lips. This idea is just plain stupid. So, why did people do it? Simple: greed.

Stock Exchanges: Sorry to burn you but truth hurts. If you have participated in any SL stock exchange, you are simply a little better than a rock with lips. This idea is just plain stupid. So, why did people do it? Simple: greed.

Beauty Pageants: Sorry to burn you but truth hurts. If you have participated in any SL beauty pageant, you are simply better than a rock with lips. This idea is just plain stupid. So, why did people do it? Simple: greed. It's only a popularity contest. After all, avatar beauty has only to do with your own skill at shape manipulation and how much you spend on skins and attachments. However, the real winners are the pageant organizers. They rake-in the dough.

In-world agencies of any kind: If you have participated in any SL agency, you are not a rock with lips. But in some case, you just might still be.. This idea is just plain stupid in many cases, but not in others. So, why do people do it? Simple: greed.

Example: advertising agency. If you signed-on with one of those ad-farmer types earlier on it turns out you got a bad wrap. Only serving to piss people-off because yours was one of the ads that appeared on those horrific-looking ad-farm towers. You got burned. Eventually, the advertising dried-up because the advertisers figured out what was happening. Hence all the bogus ads on those towers now. Sorry if you got burned with a bad reputation and not even know it. But them's the breaks, kiddo.

So, apparently there are 'hundreds' of magazines and agencies in Second Life. So much so that it's confusing! Where will an advertiser go to advertise? ZOMG! It's a nightmare! I need to hire an agency to help me hire an agency... in Second Life!

Ummm... I'm not that greedy. Look, if it's on the up-and-up, then good. But, in reading the 'press release' about this new News and Media Directory and low-and-behold: you get a discount if you are a "member" - read: pay dues. As in money, mullah, SL tender, space-bucks, L$.

So, who has all the control in this? How would I know I'm getting my money's worth? What good is a Chamber of Commerce in Second Life (essentially what this is)? I have yet to see any magazine give me convincing demographics to justify my advertising with them. Even "The Avastar", which if I advertise, is whom I will go with for their sheer size and reach.

So, as with all things in Second Life: caveat emptor.

PR.com sez: "The directory will be available to all," Tibbett said, "but members of the VWPC will receive it at a club discount. Advertising is also available in the directory at a surprisingly reasonable rate."

Source

Oh, and remember, this news is a press-release. read: 'spin' to make sour spinach sound sweet and minty as a candy-cane. Hey, maybe it's all legit. But I'm not going to find out on my Linden Dollar. 1/265th of a U.S. Dollar adds-up after a while.